RNAi Roundup #3

It’s time for another RNAi Roundup, this one featuring a few new faces and some oldies but goodies:

–Regulus Therapeutics, the microRNA company backed by Isis Pharmaceuticals and Alnylam, has signed a major partnership with Sanofi-Aventis. The French pharma firm will pay $25 million upfront, make a $10 million equity investment down the road, and provide three years of research support to gain access to Regulus’ fibrosis research program. The companies will collaborate on up to four microRNA targets, including Regulus’ most advanced efforts around microRNA-21. Regulus could score more than $750 million throughout the lifetime of the pact. The deal marks Sanofi’s second move in the RNAi space this year. In March, Sanofi signed up to use San Diego-based Traversa’s siRNA delivery technology.

–Santaris Pharma of Denmark and miRagen will jointly develop microRNA-targeted therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Boulder, Colo.-based miRagen will use Santaris’ locked nucleic acid drug platform to develop single-stranded LNA-based drug candidates. Santaris gets a minority stake in miRagen in exchange for use of its technology, and could see milestones and other payments as part of the pact.

–Cequent Pharmaceuticals has been granted patent protection in Europe for its TransKingdom RNAi technology, which uses non-pathogenic bacteria, such as modified E. coli, to deliver siRNA against certain genes. In April, Cequent was bought by Bothell, Wash.-based MDRNA in an all-stock deal worth $46 million. The purchase gives MDRNA two distinct siRNA delivery platforms.

–Mirna Therapeutics has won a $10.3 million “commercialization” award through the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, a state-run investment program meant to spur innovation in cancer research. The money will be used to advance Austin, Tex.-based Mirna’s microRNA mimic discovery platform.

–Arrowhead Research, the parent corporation of Calando Pharmaceuticals, has raised $8.65 million in a direct stock offering. The money will be used to support Calando and Arrowhead’s other subsidiary, Unidym, a carbon nanotube technology firm. Calando recently showed in a Phase I study that its targeted nanoparticle technology could be used to deliver siRNA into cells.

–Alnylam came out with more data on the use of novel delivery lipids that carry siRNA into cell lines to improve the yield of biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Many biologics are produced by Chinese hamster ovary cells, but scientists have historically had few ways to control the output of those tiny drug factories. Alnylam’s goal is to turn off the activity of proteins that contribute to cell death, hopefully upping the yields of an otherwise expensive manufacturing process.

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